Student Resource Package – Targeted Initiatives

Tutor Learning Initiative (Reference 129)

The Tutor Learning Initiative (TLI) provides funding for schools to employ tutors to provide small group learning support to students identified as needing additional support in literacy and numeracy.

For further information on TLI, refer to the department's policy on the Tutor Learning Initiative.

Eligibility

Schools are not required to apply for TLI funding. TLI funding is provided to all Victorian government schools except for:

• camp schools, irrespective of their listed school type (i.e., 'Camp' school types, Somers School Camp, Outdoor School, Rubicon Outdoor School)
• Victorian School of Languages
• Parkville College
• hospital-based schools (Monash Children’s Hospital School and Yalingbu Yirramboi)
• selective schools (including John Monash Science School, MacRobertson Girls High School, Melbourne High School, Nossal High School, Suzanne Cory High School)
• Centre for Higher Education Studies.

Funding

Funding will be provided directly to schools as a specific purpose payment through a credit allocation in their Student Resource Package (SRP). Enrolment data collected during the February 2025 census will be used to update the TLI allocation to schools in 2025.

This funding includes tutor on-costs for superannuation and payroll tax. When hiring staff, it is important to factor in these on-costs as they are not separately itemised within the budget. Schools can choose to use additional funds, for example through Equity Social Disadvantage, to expand delivery of the TLI program within the school.

Primary, secondary, and primary/secondary combined schools

Primary, secondary and primary/secondary combined schools are funded based on the number of students requiring additional learning support in literacy and numeracy, where the per student rate is equivalent to the cost of delivering a standard tutor learning program (3 sessions of 45 minutes per week, for groups of 5 students), for 20 weeks) by a Classroom Teacher 2-3 as according to the Victorian Government Schools Agreement.

The minimum funding allocation is set at $26,500 per annum for primary schools and $30,000 per annum for secondary schools, funding approximately 0.2 FTE, ensuring schools have sufficient funding to deliver at least 4 groups of small-group intervention, 2 each for reading and numeracy.

Per student rates for primary, secondary, and primary/secondary combined

Primary (Prep to Year 6 including primary ungraded) per funded student rate: $1,276.135.

Secondary (Year 7 to Year 12 including secondary ungraded) per funded student rate: $1,448.592.

Number of eligible students for primary, secondary, and primary/secondary combined

2023 and 2024 NAPLAN data is used to identify students assessed as Needs Additional Support (NAS) or Exempt in the domains of Reading and Numeracy.

This is then used to extrapolate out and estimate the number of students needing literacy and/or numeracy support for the year levels with no new NAPLAN data.

For the purposes of funding, it is assumed that students absent from NAPLAN follow the school level distribution of NAS and Exempt students. The number of absent students is multiplied by the school level average percentage of NAS and Exempt students. The calculated percentage of absent students estimated to be NAS is then also extrapolated out to year levels with no new NAPLAN data to account for the additional estimated need. See 'Primary School Example' below for an example of this calculation.

For schools with no students who sat NAPLAN in 2023 or 2024 (for example, new schools), the corresponding system average % of NAS and Exempt students for primary or secondary year levels will be used.

For senior secondary schools, the year 9 system average % of NAS and Exempt students is used to calculate funding.

Funding formula for primary, secondary and primary/secondary combined

Primary

Provided if Primary enrolment > 0

Primary funding = Max of [Primary floor $26,500]

or

[Primary funded count × Primary per student rate]

Secondary

Provided if Secondary enrolment > 0

Secondary funding = Max of [Secondary floor $30,000]

or

[Secondary funded count × Secondary per student rate]

Combined

Total school funding = primary funding + secondary funding

Primary school example

School A is a primary school with 300 students distributed across the primary year levels with:

• 200 students with recorded NAPLAN outcomes (50 students in each NAPLAN grade in 2023 and 2024)
• 100 students in the other primary year levels.

Students who have sat NAPLAN

At School A, there were 30 students who were NAS/Exempt in Reading and 50 students who were NAS/Exempt in Numeracy. As such, School A will receive funding for 80 students who have sat NAPLAN.

Students who have not sat NAPLAN

The percentage of students who need additional support in Reading and Numeracy is extrapolated out to the other year levels.

For School A, this is 30/200 = 15% of students for Reading and 50/200 = 25% of students for Numeracy.

School A has 100 students in year levels which have not yet sat the new NAPLAN, so extrapolating out gives 15% × 100 + 25% × 100 = 40.0 funded students (rounded up to 1 decimal place).

Additionally, School A had 20 absent students in Reading and 20 absent students for Numeracy. Extrapolation based on the percentage of students at the school who qualify for TLI support will also be applied to NAPLAN Absent students. In School A, this works out to be 20 × 15% (Reading) + 20 × 25% (Numeracy) = 8 students. This is then further applied to the other primary year levels by using the school absent % × school TLI funded % for each NAPLAN domain. For School A, this would be (20/200) × 15% × 100 (Reading) + (20/200) × 25% × 100 (Numeracy) = 4 students. Therefore, based on NAPLAN Absences, we get an additional 8 + 4 = 12.0 funded students (rounded up to 1 decimal place).

Therefore, out of the students who have not sat the new NAPLAN there will be 40.0 + 12.0 = 52.0 students who will be funded for TLI.

Total funding

The total number of students in School A attracting funding is 80.0 + 52.0 = 132.0 students. Total funding amount is 132 × per student rate = 132 × $1,276.135 = $168,449.82 (rounded to 2 decimal places). As this is higher than the funding floor for the primary component of $26,500, School A will receive $168,449.82 as their final TLI allocation.

Special and language schools

The funding model for specialist and language schools will remain the same as the previous (2023) TLI funding model, with updated floor amounts.

Rates for special and language schools

Primary per student rate: $157.98 (referenced as Pri_total_rate in calculation below).

Secondary per student rate: $178.77 (referenced as Sec_total_rate in calculation below).

Special social disadvantage per student rate: $424.96 (referenced as Pri_SD_enrol_rate in calculation below).

Special secondary social disadvantage per student rate*: $480.88 (referenced as Sec_SD_enrol_rate in calculation below).

*Applied for special and language schools with only secondary equivalent enrolments

Funding formula for special and language schools

Primary years and primary age equivalents

Provided if Primary enrolment > 0

Primary funding = Max of [Primary floor $26,500]

or

[Pri_total_enrol × Pri_enrol_rate + Pri_SD_enrol × Pri_SD_enrol_rate]

Secondary years and secondary age equivalents

Provided if Secondary enrolment > 0

Secondary funding = Max of [Secondary floor $30,000]

or

[Sec_total_enrol × Sec_enrol_rate + Sec_SD_enrol × Sec_SD_enrol_rate]

Combined primary and secondary years or age equivalents

Total school funding = primary funding + secondary funding

Use of funding

Schools must only use their TLI funding to employ tutors to provide targeted small group instruction to students identified as needing additional support in literacy and numeracy.

Accountability

Schools are required to:

• ensure eduPay records are updated by coding tutors as they are recruited. Schools must code tutors using the TLI code: 80026. Note that if tutors are being appointed from the school’s existing staff, their tutoring FTE must be re-coded to the TLI code: 80026 using a General Ledger (GL) override on eduPay
• ensure students participating in TLI are identified in CASES21, including if the focus of support is literacy or numeracy
• utilise an approved template for tutors to record students’ learning goals
• support evaluation and monitoring of the initiative.

More information

For queries regarding funding, contact the School Financial Management Support Unit: schools.finance.support@education.vic.gov.au

For general program information, please contact tutor@education.vic.gov.au